The Ultimate Business Machine - Archives

Luca 6.0.3 works with iCloud

We’ve released Luca 6.0.3. The Mac App Store version allows the user to move the accounting database to iCloud, thereby making it possible for the user to review the accounting data from another Mac or even an iPad (using a forthcoming version of Luca for iPad).

Actually Luca is pretty powerful. It allows the user to manage the accounting data for more than just one company, or many branches of the same company, and you can move all of these information to iCloud. I’m looking forward to releasing the iPad version. It’s easier to move around with an iPad, and being able to review the state of the accounts with a variety of relevant people while on the move could make work (and life) more convenient for some accountants.

Luca is actually the reason why we work so hard on Liya. Both use the same database access software and programming libraries that we’ve developed to store data into SQL databases—like MySQL, MariaDB, PosgreSQL and SQLite. But we test them out on Liya in a variety of general purpose situations. Liya is the test-bed, with many eyeballs bearing down on it. It’s been used by almost 25,000 people (mostly developers) since the time we’ve placed it on the Mac App Store. As they say about eyeballs—with many eyeballs, bugs tend mostly to be shallow. Report a bug on Liya and we’ll fix it quickly—because Luca benefits from having a clean, safe, precise database engine. After all, we’re dealing with people’s precious accounting data on Luca and we want these records to be kept pristine.

Just one more aside. See how for so many years at the start, Liya’s download numbers barely registered. We do zero advertising. It’s not that we’re proud of that fact. It’s just that, with limited resources, we tend to allocate most of our energy towards building great products for Mac and iOS users, with very little left over for “marketing". But, as with our “Enabler” products, and with the phenomena variously described, e.g., by Chris Anderson in "The Long Tail”, with the search tools on the Internet, people invariably find us. Well, initially the people on the fringes. Then word spread through word of mouth. And that’s how we get our users. It’s amazing, this Internet. We build the tools. And somehow the people who will like us, find us. It just takes time. But we still get there. After all, I’ve always believed in The Journey Is The Reward. That’s my favourte Jobsian phrase of all time :).